The Sex Club

by L.J. Sellers (Goodreads author)

book data

31 ratings, 3.94 average rating, 15 reviews (more data...)

rating	frequency	%
5		25%
4		48%
3		22%
2		0%
1		3%

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published

October 1st 2007 by Spellbinder Press

binding

Paperback, 347 pages

isbn

0979518202 (isbn13: 9780979518201)

description

When a bomb explodes at a birth-control clinic and a young client turns up dead, Detective Jackson is assigned both cases.

But are they connected?

Ker

...more

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05/01/08

Karen Syed rated it:

bookshelves: top-knotch

Read in April, 2008

L.J. Sellers offers readers a vivid and well-displayed look into a very disturbing and all too real trend. The style and dramatic flair of this author lend a wonderful edge to the book.

When an abortion clinic is targeted by "God's Messenger," one woman could hold the key to all of it, and she doesn't even know it. She's had enough loss in her life, so when her patients, young girls, begin dying all around her it takes its toll. Things really get complicated when the entire...more

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01/07/08

fbuser1002133670 rated it:

Read in January, 2008

recommends it for: mystery fans, beach readers

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

I got to flash the title The Sex Club and the arresting cover all over the subway, which I think only added to my indefinable air of sheer class. So already, the book was one up with me!

Ok, ok, you want to hear about the text.

The Sex Club is a solid, well-paced mystery that combines whodunnit, thriller, and procedural elements to good effect. I was initially attracted by the plot, which pits a Planned Parenthood nurse and a sympathetic single-father detective against a cl...more I got to flash the title The Sex Club and the arresting cover all over the subway, which I think only added to my indefinable air of sheer class. So already, the book was one up with me!

Ok, ok, you want to hear about the text.

The Sex Club is a solid, well-paced mystery that combines whodunnit, thriller, and procedural elements to good effect. I was initially attracted by the plot, which pits a Planned Parenthood nurse and a sympathetic single-father detective against a clinic bomber who may or may not have also murdered a 13-year-old PP client. It's a solidly pro-choice book but it never lapses into preachiness - with the disclaimer that I, like everyone else in the world no matter how they protest, have a slightly higher tolerance for preachiness with which I agree. There's a little light romance, but never excessive or cloying.

Sellers is by no means a writer's writer, and she has the occasional As-you-know-Bob moment, but the book doesn't contain painful sentence-level clunkers. Her style seems heavily influenced by her journalism background, and those who find wordplay and complex sentences to be distractions will probably see it as a plus. To me, it was lacking at times, especially in places where emotionally-charged events seemed glossed over by straightforward narration. This became more noticeable in the wrap-up, where a scene with the detectives chatting over lunch was used to resolve a number of subplots a bit too quickly.

While I'm normally not a person to be impressed by characterization, Sellers does acquit herself very well on that score. The main characters are attractively practical, sincere, and well-meaning, even when they're wrong. They're not happy about discovering that 13-year-olds are having orgies, but they deal with the facts on the ground. (The book has attracted some predictable whining about the fundamentalist Christian characters, because that portion of the cast lacks the obligatory "but they're not all bad!" sincere, lovable plaster saint. Guess who I don't miss?)

BEYOND THIS POINT THAR BE SPOILERS!

Precisely because the characterization was so good, it irked me when a well-trained PP nurse seemed more shocked by (relatively safe) girl-on-girl sex than by (highly risky) unprotected anal. And I doubt that any otherwise reasonable police detective, especially one with a teen daughter of his own, would pity a statutory rapist who suicides when accused of abusing the murdered girl because it turns out he was abusing, not her, but a completely different child.

Deeper, though, were my concerns on the thematic level. It's peculiar to note that the book, while explicit about how much the traditional narrative gets wrong about which young women have sex and why, does reproduce one of the most ingrained conservative teen-sex narratives of all: All the teenage girls who have sex and enjoy it end up dead or in jail. All the boys, and the one girl who repents, are spared.

On the whole, while I can't see this book as a contender for my best of the year, it has enough strengths to make an enjoyable commute read and shows potential for better things in Sellers' future.

A note about the publisher: Spellbinder Press appears to be a self-publishing venture on Sellers' part. I applaud her, because in 2002 she published a book with PublishAmerica, so she's moving in the right direction, and also because the book was physically a nice object (although the margins were a bit narrow.) I found the cover design enjoyable in a deliberately lurid way (as previously mentioned,) the type was well-chosen, and the copy-editing was thorough.(less)

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07/25/08

Helen rated it:

Read in July, 2008

In The Sex Club, L.J. Sellers leads you through fourteen days in the lives of nurse Kera Kollmorgan and Detective Wade Jackson. It starts with a bang, literally, and takes you through the twists and turns of a case involving murder, secrecy, and twisted reasoning. Each new incident pulls you along and keeps you reading. It’s the underlying, unsaid, questions that keep you thinking, like: How does a “good” person get so rigid in their beliefs that they become worse than what they hate? It a...more

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03/08/09

Lourdes rated it:

From the title, you might expect some tawdry book, but this is a crime novel with some important points to make. The "sex club" refers to a group of middle-school kids, 13 to 15 years old, who get caught up in sex games that turn deadly when the body of one girl is found naked in a dumpster. Det. Wade Jackson knew the girl -- she was a friend of his daughter (Sellers paints a nice portrait of him as a separated dad trying to raise a teenage daughter). He's helped by Kera Kollmorgan, a ...more

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03/12/09

Julene T. rated it:

bookshelves: fiction

Read in March, 2009

Good fast read, it gripped me immediately and I cared about the characters. I like that it is a contemporary drama set in Eugene, OR, a town I've visited so I pictured the small city as I read. It had all the elements of life in our day and age: the Iraq war, the religious right protesting and plotting against Planned Parenthood, teens indulging in sex secretly after finding their parents porn videos, the internet played a big role, and of course two bombings that open and close the book like bo...more

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10/30/08

Alex rated it:

Read in November, 2008

recommends it for: everyone

Sellers’s first novel featuring Detective Wade Jackson of Eugene, Oregon is a disturbing mystery involving teenage sex and fanatical Christian extremism. The story open with the bombing of a Planned Parenthood birth control clinic, followed closely by the death of a young client, found nude in a trash dumpster. Jackson becomes worried bout his own teenaged daughter, once it becomes known she used to be friends with the murdered girl. And the victim was sexually active. With his marriage to ...more Sellers’s first novel featuring Detective Wade Jackson of Eugene, Oregon is a disturbing mystery involving teenage sex and fanatical Christian extremism. The story open with the bombing of a Planned Parenthood birth control clinic, followed closely by the death of a young client, found nude in a trash dumpster. Jackson becomes worried bout his own teenaged daughter, once it becomes known she used to be friends with the murdered girl. And the victim was sexually active. With his marriage to an alcoholic wife disintegrating and taking on Eugene’s top elected official, Jackson continues to uncover startling revelations about the students at his daughter’s middle school.

Meanwhile, Kera Kollmorgan, a nurse at the clinic, is caught in the midst of the bombing and knowledge of the dead girl’s sexual activities but cannot divulge confidential patient information to the police. She initiates her own investigation starting with an email she received from the dead girl after she left the clinic that fateful day, but before she died. Kera stumbles upon a website where teenage girls and boys chat openly about their sexual escapades with unabashed bluntness. The more she probes, the more she unwittingly puts herself in the bomber’s eye and becomes the next target.

Jackson meanwhile believes he has the murder investigation wrapped up, when another body surfaces. Is it a copycat murder or is there a serial killer loose in Eugene?

The aspects of The Sex Club I found to be disturbing was how the bomber used Bible passages to justify her violent quest, relying on them to guide her quest for destruction and murder. Fundamentalists like this get so caught up in their religious fervor that they can twist the verses in the Good Book to fit their own agenda. On the other hand, Sellers’s concept of Suzie Homemaker/terrorist is hysterical. In one scene, she plans a nice meal for her family after cleaning up her bomb-making materials.

The realism of the teen sex in the story may cause some readers to squirm. It’s interesting to note that the emphasis in The Sex Club was clearly on the girls, while the boys were virtually non-existent, and hardly mentioned after their names appeared.

Sellers does a great job of keeping the pace moving and dialogue interesting. She has a good knowledge of police procedures and autopsy methods that are as fascinating as the mystery. The build-up to the climax will thrill you to its exciting conclusion.
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05/03/08

Patricia rated it:

The Sex Club – 5 Paws
L. J. Sellers
Spellbinder Press, 2007, 347 pps.
ISBN No. 978-0-9795182-0-1

A bible study class has turned into a sex club for young teen-agers. A religious zealot is making bombs to bomb Planned Parenthood. A young girl is found naked and suffocated in a dumpster. Are these incidents connected or just separate tragic incidents?

Detective Wade Jackson is trying to discover the answer to these questions. Although bound by confidentiality is...more

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12/27/07

Sarra Borne rated it:

bookshelves: review-copy

Read in January, 2008

recommended to Sarra by: Library Thing

A Librarything review copy.

An interesting and controversial mystery which touches on some of today's top hot buttons. Kera Kollmorgan, a nurse at the local Planned Parenthood, gets drawn into the mystery when she realizes that the body of a teen girl who visited her for treatment of an STD has been discovered naked in a dumpster. Unable to directly assist the police because of confidentiality issues, Kera begins to investigate on her own. What she discovers stuns her, can it be true,...more

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12/26/08

Marg rated it:

Read in September, 2008

This is a good but disturbing book. I have a friend who read it and recommending it to her book club. The author is an Oregonian.

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05/30/09

Ann Parker rated it:

Read in May, 2009

Yikes! Quite a spellbinding suspense book.

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07/18/08

Journeywoman rated it:

Read in July, 2008

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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12/11/08

Heather rated it:

bookshelves: general-fiction, tbr-challenge

Read in April, 2009

This was an interesting book on a topic which was all too real. It was actually quite disturbing to think this type of thing is actually happening with this country's children. I look forward to future books from this author.

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03/20/08

Susan rated it:

Read in March, 2008

L.J.Sellers wrote a magnificent book on a highly controversial issue, loaded it with suspense, and walked away a winner!

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11/29/07

Monica rated it:

bookshelves: owned

Read in May, 2008

This is my aunt's book and once I get through it I'll be writing what I hope is an unbiased review.

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01/04/09

Teresa rated it:

Read in February, 2009

Good story, interesting characters, different storyline from your every day mystery.

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07/05/09

Bernadette marked it as to-read

bookshelves: to-read

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07/05/09

Marva marked it as to-read

bookshelves: to-read

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06/25/09

Leona marked it as to-read

bookshelves: to-read

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06/20/09

Heather marked it as to-read

bookshelves: to-read

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05/30/09

Liz Compton marked it as to-read

bookshelves: to-read

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